Under the Trump administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently imposed new guidelines that
will allow doctors, therapists, social workers, and other healthcare workers to discriminate against veterans based on whether they are
unmarried, divorced, participate in a union, or are Democrats.This is outrageous and deeply chilling. Sign the petition to demand the VA reverse these rule changes!The VA's integrated hospital system is the largest in the US. It accounts for upwards of 1,000 clinics and 170 hospitals, and with approximately 26,000 doctors and 9 million patients in its system.
Previous bylaws within the VA's integrated hospital system had prohibited discrimination on the basis of not only race, sex, age, color, religion, and disability, but also
on the basis of politics, marital status, and national origin. Now, protections for the latter three categories have been removed.
Dr. Kenneth Kizer, the former Undersecretary for Health with the VA, explained that these new rules: "
seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected." He even worries that now, doctors and other medical staff could potentially refuse treatment for veterans based on a wide range of other criteria too, such as if they have a past history of drug use or are
seeking care after a sexual assault.As Dr. Arthur Caplan from NYU's Grossman School of Medicine has summarized, these updated bylaws are "extremely disturbing and unethical."
Veterans and members of the military have decried this change in policy. Some took to the popular internet forum,
Reddit, to bleakly joke that now, the VA is "giving you the opportunity to die for your country twice!" and "making combat the second most traumatizing event in your life!"
It is cruel and inhumane for the Trump administration to turn its backs on
the very people who've put their lives on the line to fight for the United States.
Veterans deserve better! Sign the petition to demand that Secretary Douglas A. Collins, head of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, reverse these changes and reinstate protections against discrimination!